The present invention relates generally to wheeled toy vehicles, and, more particularly, to wireless controlled two-sided toy vehicles capable of performing stunt maneuvers.
Toy wheeled vehicles are well-known. Toy vehicles, like the full-sized vehicles they often replicate, typically have a top side with a vehicle body portion and a bottom side with wheels, and generally are capable of operation only when the top portion is oriented upwards. Toy vehicles often flip over during play activities, and the user must interrupt his or her play to upright the vehicle. It is thus advantageous for a toy vehicle to be capable of operation with either its xe2x80x9ctopxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cbottomxe2x80x9d side in the upright position. The prior art does disclose vehicles capable of operating with either of the vehicle""s two sides oriented upwards. Specifically, U.S. Pat. No. 5,667,420, incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, discloses a six wheeled wireless controlled toy stunt vehicle in which the six wheels are sized and positioned around the vehicle chassis in a way such that the vehicle chassis is fully surrounded by the wheels and is capable of operating on any adjoining two pairs of the wheels. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,887,985, 5,919,075, and 6,095,890, incorporated by reference herein in their entireties, all disclose a four wheeled wireless controlled toy stunt vehicle in which the four wheels are positioned at the corners of the vehicle chassis and are of such a size that the outer perimeters of the wheels define a volume fully enclosing the remainder of the toy vehicle so that the vehicle can operate on either of two major sides.
Children at play with toy vehicles like those described in the above-identified patents are prone to crash such toy vehicles into obstacles. A toy vehicle that is capable of a wide variety of responses to such collisions should be more engaging to a user than a toy vehicle with less varied responses. A collision response may be characterized by the degree of elasticity of the collision: a highly elastic collision results in a pronounced rebound of the toy vehicle, a less elastic collision results in a less pronounced rebound. One factor affecting the elasticity of a collision of the toy vehicles described in the above-identified patents with an obstacle is the elastic characteristics of the toy vehicle tires. Pneumatic tires typically result in more highly elastic collisions, while non-pneumatic tires generally result in less elastic collisions.
The invention is directed to a three wheeled wireless controlled toy stunt vehicle which comprises a chassis having a first major side and a second major side opposite the first major side; two independently controlled drive motors within the chassis; a battery power source connected to the chassis, the drive motors receiving power from the battery power source; two drive wheels located on opposite lateral sides of the chassis proximal one longitudinal end of the chassis, each drive wheel being operably coupled with a separate one of the two drive motors; a third wheel located at an opposite longitudinal end of the chassis generally centered with respect to a longitudinal central plane through the chassis and through the major sides of the chassis, the longitudinal central plane separating the two drive wheels from one another; and the two drive wheels and the third wheel being of a size with respect to a remainder of the vehicle such that outer perimeters of the three wheels define a volume fully enclosing the remainder of the vehicle.